For centuries, women’s success in male-dominated fields has been attributed to “luck,” especially if they’re self-built entrepreneurs or businesswomen. However, if you push back the curtain and ask these women themselves, they’ll undoubtedly tell you their achievements aren’t due to “chance” nor did they pull their success out of a handy magician’s hat. For women who consistently break barriers and thrive in male-led industries, “luck” isn’t a stroke of fate – it’s a powerful blend of endless hard work, determination, and an unmatched pursuit of growth that has been fused amidst years of struggles.
Think of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (because she will always be one iconic woman to dominate a male-populated career field!) – she didn’t just graduate top of her class and leave the judge in awe in that final trial because she had fate (and knowledge of perm maintenance) on her side. No, she became serious about law despite her professors doubting her capabilities, went out to buy a laptop (in a bunny costume, no less), and used her workouts as certified study times to get ahead on those lectures. Do you see a pattern? With her persistence in chasing knowledge and an unwavering work ethic, Elle demonstrated how successful entrepreneurs don’t simply have “luck” – they manufacture and redefine it through active efforts.
Okay, so the idea of “luck” being more than chance is fairly simple but what exactly does it mean when female entrepreneurs redefine it? Well, for these powerhouses, “luck” is:
1. Hard Work
Women who pursue entrepreneurship don’t just think up a business or organization, give it a name and whisper a spell to make everything automatically up and set itself. No, they strategize over finances, hunt for investors, do market research and promotions to attract audiences, and deal with content production all while simultaneously fending off the daily hassles that can easily tip every one of us over the edge. And, often, they’re doing all of this single-handedly with limited support. For these female entrepreneurs, “luck” isn’t chance; it’s years of planning, preparation, and execution. None of these women incur success overnight; there is a never-ending novel of chapters that outlines the decades of work leading up to women being acknowledged for their achievements in male-centered industries.
2. Taking Risks
Successful female entrepreneurs aren’t born from smooth-sailing business endeavors; the truly influential ones create their “luck” by investing more than what they have into launching brands and organizations amidst a wildly unpredictable market. Firstly, this means taking a risk with finance and adhering to an underwhelming budget – after all, “female-only founded startups receive less than three percent of venture capital (VC) funding” (Forbes). This has been a staggeringly continual statistic, yet prominent female entrepreneurs have consistently battled it, demonstrating time and again how taking risks and straying from the obvious can propel success.
Aside from finance, thriving female entrepreneurs take risks that involve challenging the status quo, especially within male-dominated industries. Take Spanx founder Sara Blakely, for instance. She came up with and spear-headed the concept of undergarments and shapewear specifically designed for individual women’s needs at a time when more men were patent-holders than women (hence being primarily in charge of creating female clothing). At this moment, when men defined the industry, her invention had a greater likelihood of failure than success; however, in taking this risk and challenging the norm, Blakely turned a start-up founded on a $ 5,000 investment into a renowned billion-dollar brand.
3. Embracing Failure
Unachieved ambitions and underperforming ideas are common characteristics of a landscape as unpredictable as business. The stakes for women, though, are much higher. When they venture out into this world and go head-to-head with men who have long been deemed the primary trendsetters, they generally face higher rejection and greater setbacks. However, flourishing female entrepreneurs and businesswomen aren’t those who simply gave up after the first fall and were offered a leading hand– no, these women took their failures in stride and used them as learning experiences to fashion better ideas and approaches. Every time they fell, they did not allow themselves to drown in self-pity or lament their capabilities; instead, they viewed failure as a tool to broaden their minds and sharpen their vision, constantly revitalizing themselves and their business ideas (actively driving success as a result!).
4. Creating Their Own Networks
Women who thrive in the professional field rarely find mentorship and guidance within pre-existing networks, especially since a majority of these are male-exclusive. As a result, women forge spaces for themselves and others like them. In doing so, these women create powerful support systems and communities that act as catalysts for empowerment, motivating women’s success and allowing them to inspire others. More importantly, by building these networks, women generate greater career opportunities. Instead of waiting for jobs and business propositions to come to them, success-seeking entrepreneurs and businesswomen build relationships with other women, learning from and imparting knowledge on the path to achievement. CEO and Founder of Lucky Girl Social, Lucy Vincent, thought this way, too – that is why she chose to stop working for others’ dreams and channeled her marketing/business expertise into coaching businesswomen and female entrepreneurs toward success.
Having understood the lack of support networks and mentorship programs that catered specifically to women’s challenges, Vincent launched her agency intending to mentor and guide women to thrive in business without sacrificing their health and family life. With a team of powerhouses from different backgrounds, Lucky Girl Social is exactly the embracing space (offering multiple resources (including live classes!) on everything from financial/business needs to stress management and work-life balance) that empowers and encourages female entrepreneurs. Essentially, when we talk about women effectively building their own networks and inspiring others along the way, this is what we mean. Also, if we sound a little (a lot!) in awe of this amazing entrepreneur and her initiative, it’s because we are. Of course, having experienced the benefits of her expertise and Lucky Girl Social firsthand doesn’t help make her any less awesome!
Conclusion
It’s about time we dismiss the long-held narrative that women’s success in business stems from “luck” and that they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Instead, let’s do better to understand that successful entrepreneurs and businesswomen crafted their own concoction of “luck” by practicing resilience, befriending failure, and constantly abandoning their comfort zone. They have continually battled alienation and broken barriers, and while doing so, built new pathways for aspiring women. After all this, simply calling them “lucky” would mean undermining all their efforts – next time someone attributes a woman’s success to “luck,” be sure to correct them (and direct them to this blog post, of course!).
